I don't think it's the initial acceleration and any loss of traction causing the issue - mine and I think most can meet out the full beans as it regulates any slip through management of the motors. I think the issue is as mentioned, the combination of ending up at high speeds very quickly, the weight, and lack of correspondingly powerful brakes. Tesla plaids got roasted in reviews about this last point. My Ioniq 5 AWD is great and planted at quick but still relatively sensible country road speeds. But go a bit beyond and the brakes and dampers start to really lose a sense of control that could very easily result in a problem - so I don't.
One of the things that used to go round was when the Honda Civic VTEC came out, loads got trashed as they were a bit mental, despite the factory upgrades
Some fine fine memes came out of the "when the vtec hits" era
My son does have a sticker saying "My VTEC goes bwaaaaaah". But he won't put it on the car...
Any joke about VTEC engines must be firmly in dad joke territory by now, the sticker wasn't a gift was it?
Maybe. 🙃
But go a bit beyond and the brakes and dampers start to really lose a sense of control that could very easily result in a problem - so I don't.
My polestar 2 has fantastic braking and handles well.
It however is closer in weight to a Cybertruck than a Suzuki Swift, and physics simply refuses to play nicely with such changes in direction with all that mass...
There is a strong correlation across motoring that higher performance vehicles are involved in more fatal crashes per mile driven than normal cars.
I'm sure there are a lot of interesting details in the data. For example:
Higher speed drastically increases the severity of accidents. Having the same accident rate, but crashing at higher speed will give more fatal crashes. Even if performance vehicles have a lower accident rate, they could still have a higher fatality rate.
It's possible that performance vehicles do much lower mileages than regular vehicles, but are driven much more aggressively when they are driven. If this is the case, it's possible they don't cause a lot of total fatalities, but relatively large number per mile.
It's possible that performance vehicles are bought by selfish dicks who don't give a damn about other people and drive accordingly. Even if you banned performance vehicles, these people might still contribute disproportionately to fatal crashes because they drive like dicks no matter what.
Is that true though?
It comes up in a lot of insurance industry surveys. I don't think they could all be wrong.
There used to be a Europe wide stats organisation that collated and published vehicles NCAP ratings alongside real-world outcomes back in the 90s/early 00s but I don't know if they disappeared or just don't publish the info so publicly now. Part of what it was reporting was the rate at which each model of vehicle got involved in accidents and the types of accident rather than just their performance in an accident. Porsches for instance could have fab NCAP ratings but it's not going to a surprise that they get into more and bigger accidents per vehicle mile than a Honda Jazz. Part of it was comparing how vehicles actually performed in real crashes over the very choreographed nature of the tests. (NCAP at the time used to test vehicles like against like so it wasn't really an indication of how a collusion between a rangerover and micra might pan out). It also demonstrated how the crash performance of some cars tailed off over time - with a bit of fatigue and corrosion impacting on how well safety cages performed after a few years.
What was emerging at the time was that some safety measures brought their own risks - there was a bit of an NCAP arms race between manufacturers - with marketing highlighting safety over economy or performance - thicker door pillars, more raked A pillars, and generally bringing the line of the bodywork up around the driver was resulting in reduced visibility. The driver was also being moved backwards in the car to get their legs inside the safety shell and putting the B pillar next beside the driver's head- so cars either had longer bonnets or a huge dashboard with the A pillar both thick and raking quite far forward. There was also a lot of thickening of the structure at the rear of cars with quite chunky C and D pillars and quite high boot edges/small rear windows. So some models of car were revealed to be getting involved in more side-on collisions at T junctions when pulling out (big Volvos in particular IIRC) or were responsible for squashing more pedestrians in car parks etc
The disconnect between the actual speed and feeling of speed is a real thing and does affect your driving unless you are aware of it. It happened to me when I got my first 'proper posh' car which had a powerful but near silent V12, extensive sound proofing and was double glazed. I was driving on holiday through France on the near empty motoway and glanced down to realise I was doing almost 130mph when I assumed it was 70-80mph.
I recently switched to an EV and left the usually annoying speed warning bleeps switched on as it is a useful reminder when you are used to engine noise feedback. But generally I do find it remarkably easy not to smash the accelerator into the floor and drive like a dick.
But generally I do find it remarkably easy not to smash the accelerator into the floor and drive like a dick.
It's a fair point and well made.
Regarding the weight thing, tesla model 3 (most popular in uk I think) is 1600 - 1800kg. Thats very much in normal car weight these days.
Quashqai weight is 1300 - 1700kg
BMW 3 series 1400 - 2000kg
Who here has actually seen or sat in a Cybertruck?
I was driving on holiday through France on the near empty motoway and glanced down to realise I was doing almost 130mph when I assumed it was 70-80mph.
I am sorry. But you knew OR you were choosing to ignore it.
It might be smooth and silent but street furniture and trees etc whizzing by at 130 is massively different.
Regarding the weight thing, tesla model 3 (most popular in uk I think) is 1600 - 1800kg. Thats very much in normal car weight these days.
Battery packs are typically about 300kg (obviously it increases or decreases a bit based on range) but an electric drivetrain is a lot lighter than an ICE one (particularly diesel) so you end up with about a 100-150kg difference
